Rural U.S. hospitals stave off mass exodus of workers to vaccine mandate

Rural hospitals stave off mass exodus of workers to vaccine mandate Nearly two dozen hospital officials and association leaders told POLITICO they've lost just a fraction of their staff to the federal immunization requirement. POLITICO

Rural hospital officials who expected Covid vaccine mandates to cause a staffing crisis are facing a pleasant surprise: Religious exemptions and education efforts for the hesitant are keeping almost all health care workers on the job.

Nearly two dozen rural hospital officials and state hospital association leaders told POLITICO they have lost just a fraction of their staff to the federal immunization requirement, which mandated that health care workers in every state except Texas received at least one shot of the vaccine by last week.

“There was certainly a worst-case scenario that was, quite frankly, scary, and I’m just glad that didn’t come to pass,” said Brian Tabor, president of the Indiana Hospital Association. “I was pleasantly surprised.” ...

The doomsday predictions from some Republican governors and lawmakers, who warned the mandate would lead to a workforce crisis and limit care, particularly in rural areas, have not been borne out.

Hospital officials in Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming said they are still facing significant staffing shortages, the result of longstanding recruitment and retention challenges exacerbated by pandemic-era burnout. Over the last two years, those employees who remain have been subject to increased threats and acts of violence.

And many hospitals are filling the open jobs with traveling hospital workers who are stressing their budgets. Ballad Health, a health system serving parts of Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina, for example, is paying staffing agencies a rate that comes out to $125 million a year for 400 contract nurses. ...